MEMORY PROBLEMS: AT SEA

     Roberta's birthday took on the life of it's own! 

     It started on Friday, when we said "Happy Birthday!" to her and gave a present. It was hard for me to choose one for her, because her needs are so few, but, finally, with Sonny's suggestion I got her the audio book - James Harriot's "All Creatures Great and Small". I went through H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks to purchase it online and download it to Roberta's Kindle. She was thrilled to find out about it, but promptly forgot that she has it! I keep reminding her, but either she is not as interested, as she implies she is, or... I'll just have to keep reminding her! Perhaps, I can offer to listen to it together!
     Anyway, I also sent Sonny early in the morning to buy some flowers for Roberta. She was very glad to get them too, but something tells me, she now forgot that they are for her...
     It was hard to have the party on Friday, so we decided to go out today. 
     On Saturday Taka and I are suppose to go to Tai Chi. The class is right in the middle of the day, so our birthday outing had to be in the evening. I came back from the exercise feeling totally exhausted, but - duty calls! - at 6:30, as agreed earlier, I yelled at everyone to get ready. 

     The usual kerfuffle occurred, as each member of the family began to offer different views on where we should go and who should drive. We met at the door only to see Roberta, happy and alert, standing there by her walker, dressed in casual pants and blouse with a, somewhat, tired blue house robe on top of them! 
     I blinked at her a few times, deciding, what to say. The rain outside got louder, as if trying to make a point. It needn't have bothered: besides considering bad weather, as liberal as I am, letting my friend go to a restaurant in a house robe was unthinkable!
     I dragged her to her bedroom, found a warm sweater and on top of it made her wear my hooded windbreaker, so she didn't have to carry an umbrella while trying to push her walker. All the while I felt like the bottom fell off the world, thinking of Roberta's mental decline.        
     She managed to forget her eyeglasses, so at the restaurant I had to read the whole menu to her, every few seconds reminding, what I was doing. The harried waitress brought us our meal. Roberta looked at her soup and meat with starch fare and lost her appetite! I gave her a spoon for soup. She gingerly sipped some, but didn't want anymore. As I put the bowl away, I noticed, she was using the spoon to eat the gravy and then try to scoop some meat with it, although her fork lay, as usual, next to the plate. In a few minutes she declared, she wanted to put everything in a dogie bag and take it home. She must've eaten just a piece or two.
     On the way home we stopped at a store to buy her a cake. At home, though, both, she and I agreed, we were too tired and stuffed (she - with the two spoonfuls of her meal) to have cake. So, the rest of the party will have to wait 'til tomorrow. 
     It's not just the memory problem anymore with Roberta. Her thinking and reasoning are getting increasingly muddled. I feel completely unprepared to what's coming next.